PERSONAL wealth in Wales amounts to nearly £500bn – but well over half of that is held by just a fifth of the population, according to Government figures released to the Western Mail.

PERSONAL wealth in Wales amounts to nearly £500bn – but well over half of that is held by just a fifth of the population, according to Government figures released to the Western Mail.

The most affluent sector of the Welsh possesses an average wealth of more than £1.1m each – compared to just £9,000 each among the poorest fifth.

The staggering gap between Wales’ haves and have-nots mean that the average family in the country’s wealthiest 20% could give £1 to every other household in the country – and still be nearly 10 times as wealthy as those in the poorest 20% of the population.

The Office for National Statistics figures – passed to the Western Mail – are compiled by calculating the wealth accrued by Welsh households across four areas: property, cash, physical assets and pension equity.

For the wealthiest group in Wales – with each 20% amounting to some 256,000 households – the pension fund is £147.2bn.

Yet the poorest 256,000 families have combined pension contributions of just £500m. In property terms, the disparity is just as stark.

While the poorest group struggles under the burden of a collective £300m debt, the most affluent sector possess combined property assets of £24.4bn.

Overall, 62% of Welsh wealth is owned by just 20% of the population, while the worst off fifth possess 0.5%.

The massive gulf is evidence of the need for a major shift in attitudes towards eradicating poverty, it was claimed last night.

Politicians warned that the country’s huge prosperity gap was set to grow, as the economic downturn triggered further job losses at factories like Bosch.

Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru’s AM for South Wales Central, said that the loss of around 900 jobs at the Llantrisant plant would plunge dozens more families into the lowest income brackets.

Ms Wood said: “The UK Government is supposed to be eradicating child poverty, but news like the job losses at Bosch and the effect that will have on employment levels in local supplier companies can only mean that poverty levels in the Valleys areas will get worse.”

The Rhondda-based AM – a long-term anti-poverty campaigner – added that the only way to reduce inequalities was through a shake-up in taxation so income levels could equalise.

“Ultimately, that’s the only way that poverty – a cancer which has a grip on far too many of our communities in Wales – will be reduced,” Ms Wood said.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, a professor of economics who stood for the Conservatives at the last election said the disparities in some geographical areas would be significantly higher than the national average.

Wales is home to four of the UK’s poorest regions – Anglesey, Conwy County Borough and Denbighshire in North Wales and the Gwent Valleys in the south.

Prof Jones-Evans said: “I would have expected higher figures but that is not to say the analysis is positive. We live in a society where some households have wealth of £9,000 – the vast majority of people will not know how difficult that might be.

“The latest figures show that one in three children live in poverty. Poverty in the 21st century is like the elephant in the room that no-one wants to talk about. Policymakers can be reluctant to talk about this, but raising the standards of living for that lowest-wealth 20% of society would benefit the rest of the economy. It’s something that UK and Welsh policy needs to take more seriously.”

But an Assembly Government spokesman said that households in Wales had benefited from one of the UK’s largest jumps in income over the last decade, and that wealth in Wales is higher than some parts of Britain.

The spokesman said: “The Assembly Government is committed to increasing the nation’s prosperity and is aware of the challenges we face. These figures show that the median level of household wealth in Wales is higher than many parts of the UK – and is some £32,000 higher than London.

“Whilst they are an interesting ‘snapshot’ of the value of assets held by households in the UK, they do not reflect the level of income individuals receive. Of more relevance to individuals are the levels of household income and median earnings – both of which have grown faster in Wales than other parts of the UK. The earnings for the bottom 10% of employees have risen by 44% since 1999 in Wales, higher than the UK average and higher than the rate of increase for the top 10% of earners.”

WalesOnline is part of Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail, South Wales Echo, Wales on Sunday and the seven Celtic weekly titles, offering you unique access to our audience across Wales online and in print.